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City Council members should certainly, as they begin considering Jamestown's budget for 2024 and beyond, take a second look at the mayor's official vehicle.
That doesn't mean taking the vehicle away. The time for that action came and went when former Mayor Sam Teresi kept his Development Department vehicle when he was elected mayor more than two decades ago. Teresi never abused his city vehicle, and it certainly doesn't appear Sundquist has either.
That doesn't mean the council shouldn't make changes, however.
Cost should be considered -- and it seems as if cost is part of the issue four council members raised when they voted against Sundquist's $12,000 lease for a new Chevrolet Equinox after a lengthy discussion.
Two things should be kept in mind. It's necessary to scrutinize even small expenditures because federal ARPA funding is nearly entirely spent -- which means the city won't have the ability to plug budget holes with ARPA funding in coming years. And there are increased costs coming in the form of new union contracts and the same inflationary pressures that are hitting the household budgets of thousands of city residents. After an ARPA-fueled reprieve, it's again time to be conservative in our city spending. To his credit Sundquist negotiated a lease favorable to the city for his vehicle.
It's also important to keep in mind many council members weren't supportive of changing the mayor's vehicle from a passenger car to a more expensive SUV in the first place -- but they didn't get a vote on the original lease because it was done through the Jamestown Urban Renewal Agency and not the council -- and even then the lease was approved by JURA after the fact because JURA doesn't meet regularly. Council members would have preferred to pass this current lease as part of budget talks, but that wasn't possible because the last lease was negotiated before budget time, too.
Moving forward, the council needs to set some parameters for the mayor's official vehicle -- including cost and vehicle type -- so they aren't stuck in four years having this same discussion.